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Tuesday, September 30, 2008
In recent debates among candidates for Lieutenant Governor in Missouri (between incumbent Peter Kinder, who has championed the Tour of Missouri for the past three years and touts it as one of the main successes of his term in the Lieutenant Governor's role as leader of the state division of tourism, challenger Sam Page, and two minor party challengers), the Tour of Missouri has been an issue.
Missouri Digital News sums up one of those debates this way: "As chairman of the Missouri Tourism Commission, what would you do as lieutenant governor to bring dollars and tourism dollars to the state?"
KCStar columnist (and avid bicyclist) Mike Hendricks takes on the Tour of Missouri:
Still, I wouldn’t have missed this year’s race, if only to show my support for Kansas City continuing to be host of an event that brings us international attention.
Brad Huff--hailing from Fair Grove, one of the few native Missouri riders in the Tour of Missouri this year--gave his impression of the 2008 Tour on his new blog:
I am so glad to have made it through this years Tour of Missouri with much better results and performances than last year. I do not know if you all realize, but this was WAY harder than last years tour as we had to heavy hitting teams going after the big overall victory. Several days in a row the pace was well above normal, even to the fact that one of the heavy hitting Roman Kreuziger (Cze) Liquigas came up to me and stated “in America…50% Hematocrit….NO!…..60%!!!!!!….this is crazy!” yes, yes it was Roman! It was great to have such a powerful group this year and for me not to get totally shit canned! I am in such a better place both mentally and physically than previous and it showed. 
Monday, September 15, 2008
 Despite tropical storm Ike hitting St. Louis Sunday morning, by noon the weather had cleared up, the start line was in place, and the race went off at 2:00 PM as scheduled.The race was held a course slightly shortened because of fallen trees across the portion of the planned course through Forest Park. Of course, that set off a chain reaction of re-configuring the course and then re-assigning volunteer course marshals along the altered route. The good news is that even with the weather, many basements flooded, power outages, roads flooded and trees down across the metro area, over 320 of the 350 scheduled volunteers were able to make it for the race.  The start line and hospitality crews ran into serious problems with strong winds and rain--the large hospitality/VIP tent was reported to be bucking like a bronco in the wind, raising in waves of up to four feet high, despite the large concrete blocks used to weigh down the legs.Once the the rain stopped about noon, however, it was quite a beautiful afternoon and a fine conclusion to the 2008 Tour. A two-man breakaway kept away for a while but in the end the field came together and the sprint was won by Francesco Chicchi, followed by Mark Cavendish, Tyler Farrar, Ivan Dominguez, and Brad Huff. Photos from Stage 7 are here; view the photos as a slideshow here. (Photo upload is not complete--check back in a day or so for the rest.) Selected photos below:                                 
Sunday, September 14, 2008
Despite a hurricane striking St. Louis early this morning (well, not not a hurricane literally--it's just a tropical depression now), leading to lots of troubles for the start line crew (equipment blowing away, etc.), the Tour of Missouri in St. Louis Sunday at 2PM is a GO!
They will use a shortened course that will avoid some potentially problem areas and flooding. The main portion of the course that will be eliminated (based on my incomplete information I have right now) will be the portion through Forest Park. So you may want to pick out a different spot to watch the race. Hope to see you at the race today, starting near 12th & Market, downtown St. Louis. Though it is raining and flooding in places now (10AM), by race time the weather should be quite beautiful. So please do come on down & enjoy the race! Last-minute Volunteers Needed Lots of Tour of MO volunteers can't make it because of problems in their neighborhood or flooding etc, so if you could possibly come down & help with course marshaling, we could really use the help. Best way to volunteer would be to check in at the Cabanne House, 5300 Lindell at Union St. Louis, Missouri 63112. Go inside the house for volunteer check in. Or come down to the volunteer check in near the start/finish line inside city hall, Market & Tucker (12th Street). Come in the Market St or Tucker entrance. Either way, come down & enjoy the race--it is ON for today! And please spread the word--if you belong to any email listservs, etc.  UPDATE: RACE IS ***GO*** FOR 2PM TODAY. PLEASE COME AND WATCH!!!!!!AND LET YOUR FRIENDS KNOW--THE RACE IS ON! Time: 9:37AM. An announcement will be made at 11:ooAM if there will be a final stage in St. Louis. Brent Hugh, executive director of the Missouri Bicycle Federation told me in a phone call just minutes ago that trees are down and winds are blowing at such speeds at the finish line in St. Louis that truss structures of the stage are blowing down as they are assembled. Medalist Sports will announce this morning at 11AM if the final stage of the Tour of Missouri will be completed in St. Louis. All Volunters are asked to check in their appointed times. By 2PM the center of the huricane should be East of Illinoiss heading into Ohio.
Corporate Sponsors contribute revenue required that bring an epic event such as a seven stage professional bicycle race to Missouri. But without the literally hundreds of volunteers required from each city where there is a start or finish the Tour of Missouri would still not happen.
As I traveled throughout the state following ToM this year, there were three elements that stand forward making this marvolus event a success. First of course there is Medalist Sports which provides the glue that binds all other elements together. How do they do it? Just spend a few days around Kelly Green, VP of event management, Chris Aronhalt or Jim Birell, Managing partners of Medalist Sports, and you will see! Question. How many knots are required to make a fine swedish doilie? You know, the ones like grandma used to make? Thousands? Well, logistics alone requires more decisions than knots in your grandmas favorite doilie treasure. Then there are hundreds of contracted crews that move equipment from one location to the next. Its completely amazing to watch as crews roll into the finish location and setup with truck loads of equipment the night before then teardown after the finish and roll onto the next location. And as one group is setting up another group is tearing down leapfrogging across the state from start to finish! In the end, its the volunteer that stands out most visible and in the greatest numbers. Most recognized wearing the prized volunteer T Shirt. And in many cases the T Shirt is the only actual payment in return for the service. The T Shirt is important! The Tour of Missouri may be an epic event possibly ecliped only by the missouri state fair. But I'm not sure there are more volunteers.  The 2008 Tour of Missouri volunteers--almost 3000 of them this year--have done a tremendous job in making the Tour a success.Photos of Tour of Missouri volunteers:  As in the 2007 Tour of Missouri, a huge crowd was in place for the finish of this stage. Unlike 2007, the breakaway did not succeed--the peloton came back together a few miles before the end and the result was a tremendously fast sprint finish.For the third time this tour, Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia won the sprint. That puts him in the sprint jersey, while Christian Vande Velde remains in yellow. Reports were that a large crowd was again on the King of the Mountains hill near Defiance. Threatened rain never appeared, but there was a fairly strong headwind for the riders in the last stretch, which was one factor helping keeping the peloton together. As usual, the Local Organizing Committee and area volunteers (who number almost 3000 in total statewide now) did a great job in putting the finish line and associated festival together. After the race, Governor Matt Blunt and Lt. Governor Peter Kinder addressed the  crowd. With crowds so far showing as larger than last year and regional, national, and international media coverage way up (maybe as much as 10X higher in local & regional coverage, from my own observation), Kinder made the point that the Tour is a clear win for the state and the Tour's sponsors, as a tourism and marketing tool.(Kinder has recently been debating his opponent in the race for Lieutenant Governor, and topics have included the Tour of Missouri. Kinder's opponent, Sam Page, has said that the Tour is a poor use of taxpayer money while Kinder maintains that spending $1-2 million to receive an economic benefit of over $26 million is sound business, and the state's portion of the race is startup funding that will almost certainly be able to be reduced in future years--resulting in an even greater return on investment for the contribution of the Division of Tourism and other state agencies to the event.) Complete photos from the Stage 6 finish in St Charles are here, and you can view them as a slideshow here. Photo highlights below:                                                                            
Saturday, September 13, 2008
Stage 6 of the Tour of Missouri got off to a fine start this morning in Hermann. Townspeople had fixed up the parade route through town with flags, balloons, and signs.
Hermann has a population of just under 3000, and I'm guessing at least that many were in attendance for the start line and festival. The volunteers, as usual, did a great job--and officials in the Local Organizing Committee made it clear they are anxious to have the Tour back in Hermann in future years. A unique feature in Hermann was the presentation of a group of bicyclists who had committed to "Ride Like A Pro" by riding a certain number of miles this summer. The group logged an aggregate of well over 20,000 miles. The parade loop through town had some neat features, taking the riders up some very steep, if short, hills, past the Stoney Hill Winery, and through a good part of town before circling back to pass by the start line again. Complete Stage 6 start line photos can be found here, or as a slide show here. Selected photos below:                                        
The Farm Bureau's daily Spirit Awards for towns with the best celebration of the Tour as it passes through have really made a huge difference in getting more fans out to enjoy the race in the cities it passes through each day.
On my from St James to Jefferson City I got caught in the traffic as the highway patrol closed Highway 63 in Vienna, and managed to get down to the Sprint Point just in time to see the action. It wasn't much of a sprint--there was a breakaway with maybe 10-15 riders and it looked like no one was much worried about the sprint points except for Mark Cavendish, who just rode at the front of the group over the line--but it was a great place to catch the Tour coming by nevertheless. Full photos of the Vienna Sprint Point here, or view the slideshow here. Selected photos below:                            
Caught this sign outside a restaurant near the Stage 5 sprint point in Vienna:
 I think there is an important message for us in there somewhere . . .
The Tour of Missouri 2008 Stage 5 finish in Jefferson City made a beautiful scene as the stage concluded with 2 2/3 laps of a circuit around the Missouri stage capitol building.
The race came into town just about 6PM--which seemed to be perfect for the very enthusiastic crowd to stop by at the end of a work week. The circuit finish is very spectator friendly. The crowd is able to see the peloton and convoy several times and watch the end of race strategy play out. Stage 5 saw a breakaway develop early on with some strong riders, including Mark Cavendish, who won two sprint finishes early on this week. When the break passed the Sprint Point at Vienna, it had somewhere over 4 minutes. However the break was swallowed up just before arrival at the circuits in Jefferson City. This set the scene for a sprint finish, which ended at the top of a fairly steep hill just in front of the capitol building. Apparently Cavendish started his sprint just a bit late--he ended up in fourth place and the stage was taken by Rabobank's Boy van Poppel. Complete photos from the Jefferson City finish are here, or view as a slideshow here. Complete Tour of Missouri 2008 photo collections are here. Selection of photos from the Stage 5 finish area is below:                                                
The 2008 Tour of Missouri is clearly gaining momentum as it rolls across the state. The folks in St. James put on a tremendous community effort to create a festival around today's start line--and effort that, to my eyes, brought the single largest crowd to a single point in the tour so far.
I heard estimates of the crowd size of the St. James start and expo areas of over 15,000--and the population of St. James itself is only about 6,000! They had 422 volunteers out today. As the photos show, they certainly know how to put on a great time. Complete photos from the St James start are here, or slideshow here. Selected photos below:                           
Thursday, September 11, 2008
Rolla had a tremendous crowd out for the finish today. I didn't think the crowd was so big until I took a stroll around the circuit course at the finish--a unique figure-8 arrangement about 2 miles long. Most often fans concentrate very strongly at the finish line, but here the fans lined the route quite evenly all the way around--because with the circuit design there were lots of great spots to watch the race.
Perhaps the best spot was on or under the overpass at the center of the figure 8, where fans could see the riders go past above & below on each of the three circuits. The race itself was really amazing, with the field arriving in at least 5 distinct groups--strung out in a way you more typically see in something like a mountain stage of the Tour de France. The race was also very fast, averaging over 29 MPH over the 95-mile course. After the race, some motorcycle enthusiasts in Rolla set up a special reception for the many motorcycle riders who accompany the tour, acting as marshals, ferrying tv and photo camera operators, and performing other vital functions--what a great idea! Complete photos here & slideshow here from the Stage 4 finish in Rolla. Some photo highlights:                    Stage four of the Tour of Missouri started in Lebanon today. As with the stage last year that started in Lebanon, the attendance at the start line and along the first few miles of the route through Lebanon seemed to bring out as many spectators as the total population of Lebanon--about 12,000.Several hundred students from nearby elementary  schools walked to the start line and expo area, and several more busloads of students came in from more remote schools. Students had studied the teams and countries of the riders--and were definitely excited to be there and see the pro racers in person.The most memorable thing for me happened as I was driving out of town, just ahead of the peloton. As the peloton left the start line at the civic center and started a short parade circuit through the downtown area, I was about a mile away. As the peloton hit downtown Lebanon I heard this tremendous crowd roar--much like what you hear from a distant sports stadium when there is a touchdown or home run.  On my way out of Lebanon I stopped at the intersection of Route T & I-44, where the race crossed about 5 minutes after I arrived. The number of spectators at that remote location was quite large--including the first tour bus I've seen following the Tour.Complete photos from the MoBikeFed team's coverage of the Tour of Missouri Stage 4 start in Lebanon are here, or watch the stage 4 start as a slideshow here. Selected photos below:                   
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Stage 3 of the Tour of Missouri 2008, a time trial in Branson, Missouri, was another successful day, with a nice crowd out to watch the start, finish, and many places in between.
The nice thing about watching a time trial--as opposed to, say, a stage race, which passes by in just a few minutes--is that the action continues for two hours. Below are some photo highlights of Stage 3. Complete Stage 3 photos by MoBikeFed's team are here, and the Stage 3 photos as a slideshow are here.                          This morning I had the pleasure of riding the Ozark Mountain High Ride--which allows up "normal" bicyclists to ride the time trial course the pros rode later today.The ride was a heck of a lot of fun and the course was definitely very challenging. About 75 riders rode the course. The fastest time on our ride today was about 50 minutes. Lots of us were coming in about 1:20 to 1:30. The best time among the pros today was somewhere under 40 minutes--so they are just about twice as fast as we are . . . The ride had some really amazing climbs, followed by equally amazi  ng descents. In the last 10 miles, there is a long, very fast descent (where pro rider Blake Caldwell was seriously injured during the time trial--I could see how that could happen as I was easily pushing 40 MPH even on my knobby tired mountain bike), followed by a long climb, then another long, fast descent followed by an even longer, harder climb.Then you see the sign, "Shepherd of the Hills exit". Great--the race ends at Shepherd of the Hills. We're done! Nope. There is one mile left and it is the hardest and steepest of all. I counting three very steep grades, with the longest and steepest leading up to the finish line. The final mile t  ook me at least 15 minutes.The good news--I captured first place in the "Knobby Tired Mountain Bike" Division. Unfortunately, the ride crew was forced to inform me that I had also captured last place in my division at the same time. So I'm the yellow jersey & the lanterne rouge all at the same time . . . Ride photos:
Tuesday, September 9, 2008
Early morning rain showers didnt keep volunteers from taking part in the opening stage of the Tour of Missouri at St. Joseph on Monday September 8th. Scott Clark, volunteer coordinator for the St. Joseph start, had everything under control as about 135 volunteers lined up to be registered and assigned their placements on the route. And, after months of preparation pouring rains stopped just long enough and under overcast skies the starting gun was fired at 12:30PM taking some of the worlds most talented endurance athletes on a 90 mile journey through Northwest Missouri countryside from St Joseph to Weston, Platte City and Parkville to a three lap circuit finish at Kansas City's Plaza district. Winning the first stage was Mark Cavendish of Team Columbia. Martin Kohler of the BMC Racing Team winning second place and Michael Van Stayen from Robobank placing third. Cavendish who is 22 years of age won the day with three jerseys including the Youngest Rider jersey, Most agressive rider and the Edward Jones Sprint Jersey. This gives Cavendish his 15th stage win for the 2008 season, four of them being at the Tour De France. Midway through the stage, ridders met some of the most challenging terrain Northwest Missouri could offer with steep roller coaster style hills just North of Weston with Martin Koler of the BMC Racing Team and Tom Zirbel of Bissel Pro Cycling leading the peloton by nearly 5 minutes. |
